Taking the responsibility

( TC in the below text, refers to Ticket Checker)

I don't remember exactly how old I was, maybe in early teens. We had gone for vacations to uncles house, and it was time to come back. Unfortunately we did not have confirmed reservations, and we were supposed to get in to the compartment and fend for ourselves. But such things never bothered me, because parents were to take care of all this, and we just did what they told us to.

But this time was little different, dad was not there. Mom, my two sisters, my aunts, and her two daughters, in all seven of us. My uncle who had come to drop us at station, did quite a bit of work, talking to TC, and going and trying to find a ticket but from the looks of it, it appeared that he was unsuccessful.

I was there, least bothered about all this,  when my uncle summoned me. He took me little away from everyone and he gave me a 500 rupee note,

"Listen", he said " If TC cribs or says anything just give him this money",
I had always seen people giving money to traffic policemen, to TC, but never before I had done it all by myself. Growing up we always knew that we were supposed to give money and it resolved everything. But I wonder if we ever bothered to think that it was bribe, and it was wrong. I guess it was just a way of life, and that is how we learnt to deal with situations.
"But how much should I give him, and what should I say?", I asked, being visibly tensed, and I was wondering why was he not giving this job to Mom.

"You don't have to say anything, just give him the money, and things will be fine" he said,

I was still thinking about what to do, and if I should go and tell Mom about this,
but then my uncle added,
"See your dad is not there, and now you should learn to take care of everyone",

No one had said such thing to me before. Did my uncle really think that I had grown up, and I could handle things better than my Mom and aunt. I really felt very bullish, I felt big, specially now with 500 rupee note in the pocket. I was hoping he had given me change, so that I could keep some for myself, and give only some to TC. But probably I could get the change from somewhere before the train arrived. There was also this little fear of what how I would handle part with TC, and what should I tell Mom about it. What if Mom intervened? I schemed that I should find the TC, before everyone, and settle the issues with him, before even anyone could find out, how proud Mom would feel,  but would Mom allow me to roam about in the train looking for TC? probably not. Some other way had to be thought of.

I spend rest of the time before the train arrived thinking about all this. Train was very late that day and it arrived past midnight, but it did not matter to me because I had lots of things to think of.

When the train arrived, we got in to it,  and found some empty berths and settled there, hoping that no one would come up. Uncle waved us good bye, and gave me one special encouraging glance. 

As soon as the train started to move, Mom and aunt wasted no time, in settling everything in the empty berth, all the luggage and even us, all of us on two berths. The idea was to catch some sleep, and make it impossible for someone to push us out of the berth. it was funny how everyone was settled in the space of two berths. Mom was adamant that we all sleep, but I had mission to accomplish. My head was still thinking fast and thinking a lot. But nothing seemed like a great idea, I waited and waited, and did not realise when did I fall asleep.

"Wake up wake up", my Mom was shouting. "We have to get down",
"Did the TC come?" I asked Mom
"First get off the train" she said,

I realised that it was almost afternoon and we had reached the destination. But what happened to the TC? Did he not come? But of course he would have come. And probably as always Mom and aunt had dealt with the TC? Probably they paid money, or they cribbed and did something. I was upset and shocked. What had I done? I had happily gone to asleep. Missed my chance to do something.

Well I still don't know what happened that night. I only remember that I avoided talking to that uncle for quiet sometime. I did not want him to ask him as to what happened. Probably Mom had already told him everything, and I was embarrassed to face him.

For all the schemes that I had thought of I did not even get my 500 rupees. The note was found by my Mom in my pocket while washing clothes. 'Where did you get it from?" She asked.
"Uncle gave me " I said
" Why?"
"Just like that", of course I did not want to tell her about my mission in which I had failed miserably.
"You should never take money from anyone, without asking us, I will return it to him" she said. And she kept the money with herself.

But the only thing which I remember very clearly and is still fresh in my mind, were my uncle's words, "since your dad is not there, you should take care of everyone". I had started looking at myself differently. Some where that thought was born that I need to step up and take some responsibility.

Yes after all, it was time to do grown up things.

The day when I grew up

It was the 8th class vacation I think. Every vacation we used to go to my mom's native place and stay there for about a month. Lot of my uncles used to stay there and it was like a big colony, where there were about 30 kids and amazing fun. But it was a strange time, because all of sudden you felt too old to play games like Dabba Gul, pakadam Padki, and you were not get good enough to play cricket and ended up being made the 12th man, or being laughed at. But this vacation we found something nice to do.

One of my uncles had a cloth shop, and this vacation one of my cousins and myself, thought that it was time for us to leave all these boyhood things and go to the shop and learn something. The shop generally used to open at 9:30, and it became a craze for us to go to the shop at 9 in the morning, and open the shop ourselves. We had about five salesmen in shop and they used to arrive and greet us warmly and kindly and happily. In morning any ways there were no customers, so it was ok. It made us feel very important, we felt that we were giving uncle luxury of coming to the shop a little later. For that half an hour we were the kings, and we managed the entire shop, though it was hardly ever that any customer walked in to the shop at that time, and any ways the salesmen used to take care of them. But we sat behind the counter, and looked over the street feeling very important, ordering some tea and something to eat from the nearby shop, and discussing all kinds of imaginary scenarios of how we would deal with customers and make a good deal. This continued till uncle arrived, at 9:30, and then customers would start coming. By 10:30 the shop would become over crowded and then we used to just sit in one corner and observe everything, so that we can become good enough to be part of the action.
At noon we used to have lunch in the shop itself, there was some thrill in eating lunch under the counter in the cramped place, and eating it fast along with uncle so that we can get to see the customers again very soon.
We used to go home at about four in the evening, with the feel of having accomplished something. Also during the dinner time, other uncles and aunties would praise us saying how good and disciplined boys we were growing up to be.

This went on for few days, until came the Sunday. Well it did make the life very difficult, because one thing which I thoroughly enjoyed was Jungle book on Doordarshan. And going to the shop at nine meant that I would need to miss that. That was too much the sacrifice to pay for growing up. . I loved Jungle book, and I had never missed a single episode of it, except when there were catastrophes like power failure or such things, which also resulted in me being in bad mood for a long time afterwards. I talked to my cousin about it, but he said that it will not look appropriate to tell everyone that we did not want to go to the shop because we wanted to watch the Jungle book. So we had to decide, we could not also fall sick because, both of us cant be sick at the same time, and we wanted to be together in either of decisions. So we went to the shop, and hoped that in some adjacent shop there might be some TV, but it was not there. After sometime I dropped the entire thought of seeing Jungle book, and started taking keen interest in the proceedings inside the shop.

I wanted to be tough, and in my mind I had started believing that I had grown up. I decided that this was the end of Jungle book, and all such stuff, and it was time to do more grown up things and make your presence felt among people.

It became 10am and uncle still did not arrive at the shop, we had an extended time at the counter. The shop sales were managed by the salesman. Uncle did not come until, about 11in the morning.
"What happened, why so late?" I asked him
"Oh I was watching Jungle book" he said .

Little Gesture

Few of the days I go to office by bus. BMTC recently has done a amazing job of introducing new buses and bus routes and the public transport is not bad at all in Bangalore.

In Bangalore if take a bus at about 8-9AM in morning, school and college going kids form the major part of commuters. So yesterday when I was travelling I saw this two boys standing near the door, not that the bus was full, but I know these boys always stand at the door. In late teens, who look very light hearted and enjoying the fresh breeze, and probably the freedom that they might have got by entering the college from the tight regiment of school. They were full of life and totally careless.

Somehow I have never carried a great impressions of people standing next to door, I felt they always seemed to do it to check out girls and show off. But this impressions carried only till the next bus stand. As soon as bus stand came they would got out of the bus, and stood at each side of the door. As soon as Children would come to the last step to disembark the bus they would pick them up and make them jump, helping them with their bags and lunch bags and water bags. Kids would smile and they would love it. I can imagine, because I remember when I was young, I would hate the last step in bus, which would generally be significantly at bigger height, and if the bus moved slightly there was a fear of falling.

This activity was repeated at every bus stand that came, and they seemed to do it as if it was part of their job. They were converting a morning heavy polluted traffic bus ride of Bangalore in to a light, wonderful, full of smiles bus ride.

That made my day.

Where there are no locks

I have been out of blog for quite sometime, even I had stopped reading blogs for quite sometime, somehow the days have just been going away and going on but there are so many things to say and write about.

I have been travelling and reading a lot, I read yet another book from William Darlymple called, nine lives, in search of the sacred in modern India, another of his book which I really enjoyed reading, do grab a copy of it if you get a chance. I am getting to know so many things about India from his books, which I never got to know growing up.

So here is one of my travel story as well,
It is about last year when i was travelling to Adilabad. From the map of India Adilabad, falls in that part of map, where news channels normally mark as a Naxalite area. We were little sceptical, but we had heard from lot of our other friends who had been in such areas that individuals seldom have problems in Naxalite areas, generally there is always fighting between the government and Naxalite (the recent news is the new development).

The train journey to Adilabad itself was quite interesting, met few people who told us interesting stories. We were very sceptical and very careful about our luggage and were putting locks and chains, and so on when this discussion about locking and theft started. The guy sitting next to us told us the story about this village Shani Singanapore, where there are no locks. Apparently people believe that if you steal from here then you will not be able to get out of the village, something bad will happen to you, like a snake bite or something. I have heard such stories before, and this one particularly, and as it always happens I thought that it might be true at some point in the past and now things would have change drastically.

Well this episode ended, and we reached adilabad, next day morning, ofcourse not before I had had this another interesting conversation with Naga Sadhu.
Adilabad is a super small town, clean, hot, quiet, suvar rickshaws, slow and peaceful. We were supposed to stay with this one very amazing person called Guruji Ravinder Sharma, (will write about him some other day). Temporarily we were asked to put our bags in a small art room kind of place, which was beautiful but no doors, and little did I know that it was going to be where we were going to stay for few days. Every day all our samaan used to lie scattered, camcorder, phone getting charged, and everything. Further the house was next to the road and Guruji never locked the compound gate as well.

"Yahan se chori karke kaun kahan jayega" Guruji said.

The case of a smelling shoe

Something was stinking, the other day when I had just come to office. It was bad, I ignored it for sometime, but then every now and then, my senses reminded me that it was stinking. Something from down, was it the shoe? What else could stink in office. There were three people in the office, the other two were sitting together and working on some problem, am sure they were also feeling the same, but guess it was too embarrassing to point to someone that the shoe was stinking so everyone was quiet.

My shoes don't ever stink, at least that is what I always thought. But was it the other two people, I did not know.
I remember the last time I had been faced with such a smell was way back in hostel. Somehow from somewhere an insurance agent had come and his shoes were terribly terribly stinking. Today the smell was not that strong, but still it was bad, specially in the corporate office.

I wanted to ensure that my shoe was not smelling, so making it look very natural I just dropped my pen and bent down and ooopss... the right leg was stinking. It was bad. The more embarrassing thought was that I had been running around at couple of customer locations in the morning giving some marketing presentations and all that with this stinking shoes, But I had not realised that in morning, probably because I was fully absorbed. Probably someone would have tried to suggest me, but I would not have never paid any attention.

Well I don't know what you do in this kind of situations, I thought for possible solution, did not want to be caught washing the shoe in the loo. Finally decided that it was enough and I should call it a day, and should leave office, before giving a chance to anyone to tell me that my shoes were stinking. Thought would reach home early, get rid of the shoes and then send them off for washing or whatever treatment they required.

When I reached home rather early at four, and I removed my shoes to examine it, I noticed a big chunk of Cow Dung, that was smeared on the bottom of my right shoe.

When they built the dam.....

This is the story about this young man, name I do not know. He was not the kinds that would form the characters of the books or the kinds that were portrayed in the movies. He was a simple man, and he lived in a small village near the Narmada valley, almost at the border of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Life consisted mainly of going to forest and tending to small farm, the needs were not many, everything was got locally, and apparently till some years back the only thing that used to come from the city was salt.

He owned a small piece of land, which he spent most of his time tending to. His life appeared to be set, he was just stepping in to manhood and he already had found a girl for himself. Girl happened from the adjacent village which was about 15km away, walk was the only way to go. He had fallen in love with her, at the small stream which flowed near their village, and merged in to Narmada. Love marriages were not very unknown in the community and infact they were encouraged. So he was looking forward to the beautiful life to come, not aware of the huge calamity that was to fall on his head.

So as it happened, he realized that his village was one of the three villages identified in Gujarat which was to be submerged into the Narmada dam which was going to be built. He did not know much about the Dam and he did not understand much, other than the fact that it would produce Bijli, something that always filled him with wonder and amazement, something which he had seen in cities when he had traveled and something which he yearned for. He was supposed to get some money, there was confusion, so much of money looked attractive, but he could not fully figure out why was he asked to be moved from a place where he had stayed for ages. In the confusion he had also realized that the girls father had rejected his proposal for marriage. Girls father could not marry his daughter to someone whose future was uncertain. He was too confused to fight back, too uncertain to make any claims. Things were changing rapidly, and he was not able to keep pace with the change.

One year down the line, nothing remained same for him. He found himself in completely different world. He lost his land for some money. Money some of which was left, some he had spent lavishly and some he had lost. He had got land somewhere but it did not seem the same. The girl was already married somewhere, and he had stopped thinking about it because it bought pain and memories of lost world. He was doing odd jobs, he felt that he had lost his identity. But someone had told him, what the newspapers said, Dam was going to be considered as one of India's greatest pride but papers did not mention anything about him or his village



PS: Most of the story is true, heard about it in Mozda, a small tribal village in Gujarat. I also went and saw Sardar Sarovar, which is massive, and which has bought water to places where water was a struggle. But someone has had to pay the price for it.

Books books... those which created stories..

Since long time I thought that I would write about the books that I have read, some books that have inspired me, books which after reading them created some stories in my life..


Treasure Island:

This was probably one of the first books that I read, as a twelve year old I think. Before that only comics, chandamama and champak. At that time I found this book really fascinating, on the ship in search of treasures, the pirates and lot of adventure. I played numerous games based on this books with friends, searching for imaginary treasure and what not. I used to imagine and hope that someday in our school picnic we all should get lost and land up in isolated island. I had even made a map of that island, and I had written small notes as to how it would all happen, and how should I emerge as a hero in discovering the way back, and ofcourse in the isolated place we would find the treasure. I had even thought that I wouldl make the tele-serial out of it, because I felt that I had to tell this story to whole lot of people.

Treasure Island is like a fairy tale, with lot of adventure, and imagination. I think every one should read this book.

Gone with the Wind:

Just before I had entered college, I had this urge to watch English movies, because I felt without watching these I would be ill-equipped to face other students who would have watched hundreds of them. One of the movies that I happened to see was "Gone with the Wind". I could not see it fully, but it looked grand. When I went to hostel and saw the book by this name, I knew that I had to read it. I liked the character of "scarlet". I loved the never say die spirit, and that little sentence which said, "I would think about it tomorrow, after all tomorrow is a new day". This lines still continue to inspire me. Also I loved the title "Gone with the Wind" and I think in our fast changing lives that we should enjoy the things when they are, because you dont know when things will change, and old ways would dissappear.


Guide:

I rate this as one of the best books that I have ever read. It is just so wonderful and amazing story. I love the transformation from the guide to the saint, and it seems to happen so effortlessly, nothing looks artificial or fake. I love RK Narayan style of writing, he writes so simply and so well. I have read most of his books by now, but nothing can beat Guide. In many ways this book inspired me to write. Also inspired me to read books from Indian authors, because there are so many things that you can connect to so easily when you read this books.







Daddy Long Legs:



Chotu book. Am not sure if many have heard about this book, but it is a collection of letters written by one small orphan girl to a friend who sponsers her education. Letters are full of innocense and the experience of a girl in a school who earlier was inside the for walls of orphanage. I like the drawings and again the simplicity. I want to write more after reading that book, write in the sense, write more letters, write with hand instead of type writer.

Read it if you can, you can finish this book in about one hour.







The age of Kali:

Another addition to my books about India. The book inspires me to travel and write more. Love the way in which William, explores the history of each place and also the small anecdotes from each place and people. I learned so many things about India after reading that book, things which I did not know. I also feel that history books should be written in this way, which connect you to people rather than just the facts.
In this books I specially loved the essays on the Sati system and also on Lucknow










If you are reading this, and if you have a blog, do also post something about your favourite books, this is the best way to know and discover new books.

Meeting up with Naga Sadhu

That was the first day of the trip, and we were traveling from Mumbai to Adilabad. On the morning when brushing my teeth in the train I noticed this guy, sitting on the window seat. I was wondering if I should talk to him or not, because sadhus always invoke a feeling of fear and disconnect. But I decided to talk to him and he turned out quite friendly.

His name was Vinod, and he was from Amarkantak, where he stayed in the aashram. Aparently he was given as a “Gurudaan” to this ashram and now as a part of ashram he had done various tapas and yogas and now was a naga sadhu. He was a bal brahmachari and intended to remain so for the rest of his life. His knowledge about plants was amazing, he was looking out of the window, and pointing me to various plants and things and was telling me about the medicinal properties about them. Dont know if they were true or not, but he was telling with so much of confidence.

He told me lot of things about this educational system about this life, about what he does during the day and I dont think I can pen down everything here. He even showed me the photo album of his sadhu friends and mostly which had pictures of Gods and naked sadhus. He knew sanskrit and hindi, but was uneducated if we considered with todays terms of educaiton. He had never given any board examinations and that did not matter. But am sure with the knowledge he had, he could easily make a living and was more capable to finding his way around and surviving as compared to most of us who are highly educated.

His language was so pure hindi. He told me lot of stories about God specially shiva and Bashmeshwar. He was so surprised at my lack of knowledge about his guru and about any of the stuff that he knew of. I just felt as if we were seperated out in time, and also totally seperated out in the way we live as well. Hopefully I shall go to amarkanthak and meet him again sometime.

After coming back to Bangalore I read up little bit about the aashram he belonged to. And I found this story about "Tapasvi Baba" who had started this aashram. He left home at age of 12 and wandered and became a Naga Sadhu. He walked and walked around India for so many years before founding this aashram in Amarkantak. I also found his story amazing.

I always knew and heard about these Sadhus, but I always thought they were kind of fake, but meeting Vinod I did feel that there is so much these people know, the knowledge that has come from generation and most of us just disregard.

Taking a Stand

Hi,
I am back after a long holiday and back to blogging. It was a hectic travel and net access was difficult and even you did not feel like sitting in front of the computer. Lots of travel blogs to write but before that just wanted to write this small story which I read somewhere. Am sure you are gonna like it.
"
Once upon a time, during the time of Mahabharata, there was this great warrior who wanted to be part of war between Kauravas and Pandavas. So he set out to Kurukshetra battlefield. On his way he met Krishna.
"I want to participate in great Mahabharata" he told Krishna.
"What can you do?" Krishna asked him
"With one arrow I can kill all Pandavas, with another arrow I can kill all Kauravas, and with one arrow I can kill Krishna" he said (he did not know that the man he met was Krishna)
"Prove yourself?" Krishna said.
"Ok, look at that tree, with one arrow I can pierce all the leaves of this tree"
Krisha asked him to do it, secretly plucking five leaves of the tree and putting under the five fingers of his feet.
The warrior shot the arrow and it after piercing each and every leaf, it came and pierced each of Krishna fingers one by one.
Krishna was very impressed and he realized that the warrior was of the highest class.
"On which side would you like to fight the war?" He asked,
"I always fight on the side of losers" the warrior said.

This really bothered Krishna, because he knew this would create a loop. The warrior would first fight on Pandavas side, and when they would be about to win, he would join Kauravas, and so on. The fight would never end. So he decided to end the warrior
Krishna asked the warrior, "Would you help me to fight against a a person who is destroying the dharma that I am trying to establish on Earth?"
Warrior said, "yes I will cut his head" he said
Krishna showed him the mirror. Warrior immediately realized that Krishna wanted him to be killed, but true to his word he offered his head to Krishna.

Pleased with him, Krishna asked him for the boon, and the warrior asked to be allowed to see the battle even when he was dead. So Krishna placed his head on the tree, where in spite of being dead he could watch the battle.
"

Well the story ends here and I have picked it up from Professor Devdutt's site. So Devdutt says that this story teaches us to take a stand because if you don’t take a stand then you end up being nowhere and don’t allow others to reach anywhere.

He says that in our day to day corporate meetings, we see people who are so brilliant that they can see things from both sides. When someone proposes a plan, they argue in favor of it, but as soon as everyone is about to agree to the plan, they argue about the misgivings of the plan. At the end of it, everyone is confused and you don’t take any decision. Hence the meetings just remain as mere intellectual discussions without any outcome.

So many of my meetings in my company have been like this. We just talk and talk and talk and talk very intelligently without making any decisions what so ever.

Even in my personal life, for lots of things I find balance arguments in favor and against doing something. And most times in these cases I don’t decide and keep thinking it over and over again. Guess it is best to decide something and move ahead and review the decisions at some point of time later.

Also reading Devdutt site makes me believe that there is so much in our mythology stories. If you try to interpret them, there are so many things. These stories are not just some imaginations, but have deep rooted meaning. Wonder why don’t we have more of these in our textbooks rather than decoding half French poems by William Wordsworth and "thou thy" language of Shakespeare.

On the mission to become veterinary doctor

I met Saif when I was traveling in a bus, going to a small village of Kesalaguda from Adilabad. (Adilabad is a small town located almost at mahashtra AP boarder, in central India. )

As it turned out he was going to Karimnagar to get admissions in diploma in veterinary science. He was carrying a file along with him, which he showed it to me. The file had all his certificates. It did seem little strange to me, because I thought that it was not one of the fashionable things to do for a 20 year old guy,

“Are you interested in being an animal doctor?” I asked

“No, I have to do something to get settled na. If you get settled in life then it is so good. I will get a job in government in Adilabad if I do this course, then life is so peaceful you can really enjoy life”

"So you want to do a government job?" I asked

"Yes, government job is so peaceful, you can travel you can do everything, you get fixed income, I would get settled so early in life"

"But why do you want to get settled?"
"No it is good to get settled"

All throughout our conversation which lasted for close to one hour he just kept on insisting the importance of getting settled. He was a youngest in the family of 5 brothers and four sisters. All his elder brothers were “settled” as the way he called them, one of them an auto rickshaw guy, another one a Hawalder and so on. One of them had even got separated as he had got married. So there was no guarantee how life was going to be so it was important for him to get settled.

“Is farming not a very good option?

“No generally people give their farms for rent to private companies; private companies pay about 50 thousand a year for ten acres of farm. So that is good, If you take a government job then it is so simple, you can just go for vacations no tension”

“What are your friends doing?” I asked

“Most of my friends are trying for jobs, some are continuing their father business, some have found jobs?”

"Is there someone whom you really look up to and admire"
"I had a friend, who took up a job in private goods company and he then he started taking and in less that two years he had earned about 4-5 lakhs."

"But do you want to make money like that?"
"No", he said, "I want to live a simple life"

Do you smoke and drink?

“Sometimes I smoke, when some of my friends do, I just need thirty rupees everyday for my personal expense, most is petrol, that would make me happy. If I can spare that much I would be very happy. ”

Do you vote?

Yes I vote and I vote for congress, because congress gives reservations and then I will get the job.

Do you want to do everything for the country?

“First I want to do something, for my parents, and give them a peaceful life. Then I will think of doing something for the country. That is why I want to be settled first”

:D

Three months trip around India

Since last twenty days I am on a three months trip around India. :). I have kind of taken a break from work and have been traveling. The primary focus of the trip is to meet NGOs/organizations/people who have been doing great work in social sector.

We have a tour blog which is can be found here.

I have to post lot of stuff here, people I have met and the places I have seen. Over last twenty days I have learned so much about things, met amazing people (the best among them were one Naga Sadhu and one guy who has done PhD on the brain of honeybees).

I will write individual posts soon on various people and places I see.

Cheers.

A Kilikili Film

I guess if you are familiar with this blog, you might already be knowing about Kilikili.

Kilikili is kannada for giggles or the laughter. This initiative was started to make public spaces esp. parks more accessible to special children. Kilikili has adopted 3 parks in Bangalore with help of the local government. An amazing concept that you can easily replicate in your neighborhood.
You can read more about Kilikili here.

So one thing that has kept us busy over last few times was this film. We shot this footage almost one year back and since that time have been trying to edit it :). This is the alpha version of the film and I am putting it here, do watch it and give any kind of constructive feedback if you have any.
The final version of the film with improved sounds and crisp editing is in the pipeline.





Related Posts
Kilikili time
Change begins with me, I can be the change.
Story of Stuff (A must watch if you have not already watched it)

Back from the Slumber

I have kind of disappeared from the blogger, now that I did not have things to write, but then somehow never really got to writing anything in last one month, not for the blog, not for NGOPost and not for anything else. But there have been so many things happening, so here is what I have been up to in recent times....

1. I went to kerala to see the boat race, someday I should write a full blog on this but it is something that you should go specially if you are staying in Bangalore. The boats are so long that they enter one frame of the photo, , as many as 100 people (that was what I counted in one boat) and the atmostphere and everything about boat race is amazing. Boat race happens once a year, and there are two three that happen, and I went to one called Nehru cup.

2. These days am making a website for NGOPost, NGOPost is turning two on 1st september and we would release the website then. :), when you can see it.

3. Went to CharMinar and the in to the lanes around it, I have been to hyderabad number of times but never really to Charminar, in all these days. People said that it is just a four minars so what is so great to see there, but then the bazaar around that is good. Not that I have not seen that kind of bazaars, but I did not know it was such a big bazaar of bangles, bangles and bangles and bangles everywhere. There were also lot of "scent" shops, though I did not get a chance to take a look at them.

Will write more later soon, lot of things to write and say.

Change begins with me, I can make a difference

Below is experience of one guy (Shabbir) with Bangalore traffic police about how you can make a difference.

Really worth reading and inspiring.

Note: This is not a spam, have emailed shabbir and he replied back also.

"
It was Friday 5th June, at about 3 pm I drove my Ford Ikon car into 80 feet road at Indira Nagar in Bangalore, wanting to reach on time for my 3.30 pm meeting with a client.


As I entered the wide road I saw a posse of traffic constables who stopped my car on the side and asked me to produce my car documents to the Traffic Sub Inspector (SI) who was standing on the footpath. I walked upto the SI and displayed my Driving Licence. He told me to bring my Car Insurance certificate and also my Emission Certificate for the car.


I walked back to my car and realised that I had not carried either of the documents in my car and was cursing myself for such a slip. I came back to the SI and told him that I did not have my document and what was to be done. The SI had a half smile & told me that the fine for not carrying both these documents was Rs 600/- however I could pay him Rs 300/-.


I removed my wallet and told the SI that I would pay the amount and wanted a receipt. He suddenly got stern and told me that in that case the fine was Rs 1,100. I paid the fine of Rs 1,100 and took the receipt, wondering why the fine had suddenly escalated just because I wanted a receipt instead of paying the Rs 300 bribe which the SI had asked.


After my client meeting as I was driving back, I was annoyed at myself for not carrying the documents and I was angry that at an officer at an SI level was blatantly seeking a bribe. I decided that I should do something about it and as soon as I reached my Home Office, I logged on to the net and found out that the Traffic Police of Bangalore has a website, which gives details of the fines chargeable, it also provides for logging complaints and gave the email ids of the Asst Commissioner of Police (ACP) for the traffic division.


At about 7 pm that evening I wrote an email to the email id of the ACP, narrating the incident of the afternoon and lodging a formal complaint in the email. I also found out the website of Lok Ayukta of Karnataka and marked a cc of the same email to the email id's given on the Lok Ayukta's website.


By about 7.30pm I had done the needful, and I was happy with myself that what I preach in my Leadership Workshops wrt Values, I had practised to a large extent (Paying the fine instead of paying the bribe and reporting the bribe demand to the best of my ability). I thought the chapter ended there, little realising that I would be having an indeed amazing and pleasant experience in the hours and days to come.


On Saturday 7th June (the next day) at about 2 pm, I logged into my Home Office and checked my email and lo behold, I had three emails sent to me by the ACP to who I had written the complaint email the previous day. The first one, informed me that I had done the right thing by paying the fine and not the bribe, the second email asked to give my complaint in writing and fax it to the ACP, so that action can be taken on the SI and the 3rd email asked me to give the ACP a call on his office no or his cell no, so that he could accelerate the action to be taken on the erring SI.


I promptly put my complaint in a letter and sent a scanned copy through the email to the ACP.


On Sunday, 8th June in the morning I checked my email and I had an email from the ACP stating that the erring SI had been suspended from service and that I must give the ACP a call to work out the next formalities. I called the ACP (till now I did not know the name of this ACP) who answered my call on the Sunday.


During my phone conversation he introduced himself as ACP Pravin Sood, and thanked me for doing what I did wrt not paying the bribe and also escalating the matter in writing, he explained that many Bangalore citizens escalate such cases to him but then back down when asked to give the complaint in writing. He apologised to me (yes - he said "I am sorry for what you faced with this SI who harassed you, because he did not have any business stopping your to check your documents if you had not done any traffic violation") and he invited me over to rea to his office at a time convenient to me.


After I kept the phone down, I could not believe that here was a case where within 48 hours of an incident of seeking bribe, the erring office was suspended.


I decided that I must meet in person ACP Pravin Sood, speaking with who for 10 minutes had changed a few paradigms in my mind about Public Service Officers. Since I was travelling the next few days, I sought time with him on 15th June at 4.30 pm at his office. I reached ACP Sood's office a little early (at 4.10 pm) and was pleasantly surprised when I was ushered into his office at 4..15 pm, he asked me to sit as he was completing a meeting with another delegation.


At sharp 4.30 pm he ended his previous meeting and turned to me and spent the next 20 minutes discussing with me several aspects of Traffic Policing in Bangalore and offered me a cup of tea (many corporate clients I visit, do not see me on time and do not offer me a cup of tea, so what ACP Sood was doing was indeed better than many corporate folks I have met!).


Right through the conversation, he was courteous, frank and completely articulate on his thoughts and ideas. He reiterated that there would be no repercussions on me for giving the complaint in writing, and that I may have to make one appearance in person when the internal enquiry is done, he also offered that instead of me having to come to the Police headquarters to give the statement, he could send one of his officers to my residence to take my statement if I so wish.


When I was leaving ACP Sood's office, I told him "Over the years many of my friends and cousins have urged me to migrate and settle in one of the western countries, but I have consciously chosen to stay back in India by my choice -- when I have interactions like the one I had with you ACP Sood, I am happy that I made the choice to stay back in India". It was an impromptu comment, straight from my heart to which ACP Sood just smiled and shook my hand.


When I was walking out of ACP Sood's office, I felt reassured that if we have officers like ACP Pravin Sood in our country, there is a Glimmer of Hope against corruption, provided we as citizens have the courage to say NO to bribes and have the inclination to report cases of bribe (I am no major RTI or social activist, yet I found all the info I needed on the web, sitting in my Home Office).


Change begins with me, I can make a difference!
"

I have had similar experiences but I have never gone that far to meet ACP and all, but I guess we should start doing that, at least start questioning and try to find answers.

Similar stories:
Did you see Rang De Basanti?

Look at the Horizon

"Look at the Horizon",
that is what one of the characters in one of the Paulo Coelho's book keeps telling (I dont remember which book, neither do I remember the name of the character).

He says that most of us limit our vision just to the things within two feet of our vicinity, we keep getting tensed about them, worrying about them, getting caught in them, and overlooking everything else which is beyond that boundary line. But then we so easily forget to look beyond, there are so many things in life other than the current problem at hand, so many possibilities, so many people who love us, so many opportunities which still exists.

Lot of times when I am getting late for meeting I just get caught and lost thinking about those only. I stop looking at trees, people walking on foot path, the sky, the rain, children and everything, and all the energies are spent in figuring out if I will reach five minutes late or ten, and if I have enough reasons for either of the case. But then when you think about it two days later, how stupidly inconsequential it all seems.

So I keep telling myself, "Look at the Horizon", because there are endless possibilities, opportunities and people who are waiting for you to become friends.

PS: Have been away from blogs and also on commenting on blogs, but would be back soon.

Another 10K in Bangalore

Marathon, Marathon, Marathon (Actually it was not a marathon, it was just a 10K run, but I guess marathon for most of us) another one got over in Bangalore. While running yesterday I was getting bugged about this thought about the history of marathon and here I found it on google.

According to which,

"

The modern Athens Marathon commemorates the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield at the site of the town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C. Legend has it that Pheidippides delivered the momentous message "Niki!" ("victory"), then collapsed and died.

"

I was just talking about marathon to my friend in office today morning and he said,

"Why would you want to run marathon? It blocks the roads and create chaos. Have you ever thought what happens to the ambulances during the marathon time?"

He had a valid point but then I guess such kind of events are very important for the city, because it kind of gives you a break from normal work, day to day life and just sometime to think. I specially loved all the people who had come down on streets to cheer the runners. Also it is so nice to see so many old people running, and so many people running for some cause that they support.

But then the ambulance points was very valid, and I tried calling some hospitals to see if there has been any problem yesterday because of marathon, but then I did not get any response, and I also thought it was not a good idea to ask because, they were more bothered to handle any emergency cases if any rather than answering some queries, which would be used to write the blog, probably some of the doctors reading the blog can comment on this.

So I guess instead of stopping these events we just have to take up steps to improve and organize these events with least amount of discomfort to other people.

Like last time around there were lot of bottles thrown everywhere,

this time an organization called Saahas made lot of effort to try different alternatives to plastic bottles and also

to put the bins at different places so that bottles are not thrown every where. Well the alternative part did not go well, but this time around they managed to put the bins, which did result in much cleaner roads. Really appreciate their effort and am sure next run we would do better to try some alternatives to plastic bottles as well.

Do run a marathon when it happens next, it is really fun, it will make you exercise your limit and you get so high when you just cross the finish line. As someone had rightly put the banner,

"Pain is temporary but the pride is permanent"

The Snake and a holy man

 

There was a certain village, where one snake used to live. Now this snake used to keep biting people and all the people in the village were very scared of him. So the people of the village never used to venture out of the house much because of the snake, even children did not used to play outside their houses.

 

One day one holy man was passing through the village and he was surprised to see the village so quiet, and on enquiring he got to know about the snake. So this holy man went to talk to the snake, in general you cannot talk to snakes, but holy men have special powers and they can talk to them.

 

Holy man gave all the gyan to snake, and explained him that it was not a good idea to be biting people around and harassing other living beings. It was against the scriptures and he might suffer in his next birth. The snake was very impressed with the holy man and he promised that he is going to change himself and become a really good good snake.

 

Now fast forward, one year ahead.

 

The holy man is again passing through the same village, and he sees the village full of activity. He feels very proud of himself. As he goes forward he sees a group of children crowded around something, jumping and playing. When he went near he saw that these children had surrounded the same snake, and they were hitting him with stones and catching its tail and the snake looked completely tortured. Snake was looking very sorry looking and meek.

 

The holy man drives all the kids away, and feels very sorry for the snake. He asks the snake, what happened. Snake says that as people started realizing that snake had stopped biting, they started making fun of him, and harassing him.

 

Then the holy man tells the snake, “I had only asked you to stop biting, but not to stop hissing, you have to be nice but still stand up your ground.”

 

“Be nice to people, but don’t get walked over”, I guess this is the moral of the story.

 

Guess this is little stupid story, but I really found it very relevant and really liked it.

 

 You may also like to read the following:

How umbrella and slippers came in to existence

A small story

A blog after a long time

I have been off blogger for a long time, not that I did not want to write and also not that I have been lazy, but somehow it has been slipping lower and lower in my priority list with so many things struggling to find place in my To-Do list. 

here are some of the recent things that I have been up to..

 

1. Just came back from a week long US trip, I really love this short trips because they kind of rewind you up and you come back with so much of enthusiasm and new ideas.  I saw Stanford campus for the first time, and I really liked it. Sometimes feels that I should go back to school again. 

 

2. Mayank and I have been busy making a short film for Kilikili, it is almost done and we are going to put this up on youtube shortly. 

 

3. Am reading this book called "Blue Sweater" from Jacqueline Novagratz. The author is a founder of Acumen Fund, a non profit venture that invests in various sustainable social enterprises around the world. It is a nice book about experiences of author, as a 25 year old trying to setup micro finance institutes in Africa (Rwanda). Apparently Jacqueline had a blue sweater when she was young which she donated, and when she went to Africa (Rwanda) she found one guy wearing her sweater. Her sweater had traveled all the way from US to Africa and probably had gone from hand to hand before finally landing up with this guy. :)

 

4. Finished reading "Age of Kali" by William Dalrymple and I would suggest you can read it, I really love his books. 

 

5. Went to attend this talk on environment, where the guy opened his lecture with this joke, which I liked,

 

Year 1995, two seven year olds are having conversation,

 

First guy: Hey I saw a condom in the verandah?

Second guy: What is a condom?

 

Go Forward, Year 2009, two seven year olds are having conversation

First guy: Hey I saw a condom in verandah?

Second guy: What is a verandah?

 

I guess am going to be more regular to the blog now, I like to pen my thoughts down once in a while and there are so many things to write about.

 

 

 

Soil-less Garden...

On saturday, Parul and I set off. It was a long weekend and we wanted to do something and go and visit some place, or go and talk to someone. After looking for some alternatives and not being able to decide on anything, in morning we decided that we are going to go and take a look at "hydroponics" garden that has been recently setup.



So "Hydroponics" is soil less cultivation. Under this system you grow plants, in small plastic containers or wooden frames, and use water and nutrients and NO soil. These apparently are very easy to cultivate, and since they don’t require soil, you could put this tubs on your terrace, balcony and everywhere. Since it is more controlled environment they don’t need pesticides and give better yields (as claimed) and many people think this could be solution to world hunger.

Wooden frames made to cultivate vegetables.

(Note the above picture is from pet bharo website, not from the school we visited)

We had got to know about hydroponics through one story on NGOPost, which was about "Pet Bharo" initiative, run by Indian institute of simplified hydroponics in Bangalore. So when we called them Saturday morning they asked us to visit this school, Sandra Rickett public school on Hennur road, which hae successfully implemented this technique and they were using the vegetables grown from there for the school consumption.



And when we reached there the garden did look very impressive. There were plants and plants every where, in plastic tubs, small plastic buckets, wooden frames and everywhere except in soil. Tomatoes, brinjals, cauliflower, chillies, Bhindis and everything. Tomatoes were specially thriving, with so many of them. The lady was running the school said that she did this training course on hydroponics. So in simplified terms, the way it works is that, you put some fiber (coconut outer) along with Perlite (which you get in market, and is kind of volcanic rock), and then you grow plants in them. Use the same seeds that are used for soil. You use nutrient (which again you get in market) dissolved water to water these plants. And then plants would grow.

Tomatoes and tomatoes thriving in these small wooden frames.

(The above picture is from school we visited, did not have camera and it is from my Nokia Phone)

It all looked good, but to me it kind of gave me a feeling of concentration camp for plants. Just like chicken farm, here there were plants and plants all put it small space, they had even put some plastic bags hanging from the wall, in which they had this perlite and fiber and plants coming out of it. Did not give such comfortable feeling, and kind of felt sorry for the plants.

Also I was wondering if there are any health hazards of consuming such vegetables. So then went to google, but then did not find any people who were complaining about the health hazards. People believe that these vegetables are much better than the ones grown with pesticides. There were one or two articles which said, that there was some concern about the long term effects on immunity system, as plants growing in soil, do absorb some fungi and other nutrients which do increase our immune system, but still no detail study reports that I could locate as of now for any issues related to health.

Probably over the coming days, would try to figure out if are there any regulations from Indian government for the same.

As of now I will try to do this course when this happens in Bangalore next, May they had said, and then at least would start of growing flowers and small vegetables on my terrace.

Have a great week ahead.. :)

Related write ups..
Pet Bharo on NGOPost. Solving poverty and Hunger in India.

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Remembering my first election...

That was long time back. But I do still remember it very clearly. Everyday we used to go to school in a bus, not a school bus but the public transport. Me and my sister, I was in third class I think. Things were very different at that time, small town, good busses, less crowded, and we used to have almost the same crowd going in that bus everyday, and most people kind of knew each other, not personally but as a fellow bus mates. 

 

It was election time then, and there was this guy who used to travel with us, much older, he was in college at that time. And just like that he asked me,

"Whom would you vote for if you have been given a chance to vote?"

"Congress", I said, without sligthest hesitation

"Why would you want to vote for Congress?"

"I will vote for congress because Sarojni Naidu was from Congress", I said,

We had just done one lesson in English about Sarojni Naidu and I was very impressed with her and she was from congress, some first minister or something and I don’t even remember now and that seemed logical enough to vote for Congress because she worked for congress.

 

But then this guy burst out laughing, and he even told one fellow old passenger who was absorbed in reading the newspaper, that we would vote for congress because Sarojni naidu was from congress. I did not quite realize then that why would he want to laugh at us for this.

 

"No you should vote for BJP, because they are building temples" he said,

Till then probably I had never heard of BJP, or probably had never paid any attention to it, but this was first time. And at that time all of sudden this awe of BJP was generated, because of course building temples at that time did seem a very noble deed. As kids we used to love going to temples. Whenever we used to go for cycle rides or just play, if we ever passed any temple we would make it a point to go, and try to remember and do all kinds of things in temple that we had seen mom and elders do when they went to temple, and ofcourse taking "prasad" back home. It was also a great thrill for us to discover new temples, small small ones, and then come back and report to mom, as if discovered gold.

 Anyways, but this thing about, BJP as a party who were noble and build temples stayed with me for a long long time, until much later when I grew up and started realizing that how bad and ugly these temple building business is. And I just feel sad for that college guy in the bus and for others who vote just because some party seems to be doing some outwardly noble deed like this. 

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My First Job.

First day at School.